


WWE: Office Politics

by Besaster



Category: FCW, NXT, Pro Wrestling, Professional Wrestling, WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Explicit Language, F/M, Humor, M/M, Office AU, Seth wants to leave his life in Iowa as a CrossFit instructor, Sexual Content, WWE is the Netflix of pro wrestling and combat sports, ambrollins - Freeform, difficult customers, everybody is too hot there, he applies for a customer service position in the WWE Orlando office, more to be added - Freeform, new start new life new Seth, offices are not as boring as he thought, rating will go up at some point
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 17:20:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14169774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Besaster/pseuds/Besaster
Summary: After a cheating scandal, Seth feels he needs a change from his gym job and travels to Orlando to apply for a customer service position in WWE Network, the Netflix of pro wrestling and fighting sports. He always thought offices were boring, nothing to do with what he saw on tv, but it paid better than being a CrossFit instructor.If he gets it, he’ll leave his small Iowa town behind to adapt to the vibrant Orlando, colleagues from everywhere around the globe, and a professional world that he never thought existed.He’ll discover soon enough that reality always beats fiction.





	WWE: Office Politics

Seth fidgeted with the lanyard and visitor tag he’d been given upon arrival to the WWE Orlando office earlier in the morning.

Jittery as hell, he squirmed on the sofa in the reception area along with other nine applicants. Out of the former forty people who were called into the selection process, only two would finally be hired as customer service agents.

Despite his attempts to roll and stretch his sore back and neck, he didn’t know how to sit anymore. The fourteen-dollar per night price tag and uninviting photos on Airbnb suggested exactly what the room was. Just a tiny, uncomfortable shared hole to crash for a week.

With some modest savings made through his working years, he could definitely afford better but decided against it.

If he got the job, he would need money to move into an apartment. Seth didn’t plan to bring many belongings, only two suitcases and Kevin, his dog. Anything he forgot to fit into his luggage, his family could ship it to Orlando at a later stage anyway.

On the other hand, if he failed, he was still under contract at a local gym-turned-CrossFit-box where he’d worked for years.

Applying for a job at WWE, the fucking Netflix of pro wrestling and other contact sports was actually his vacation. He couldn’t be any more thankful to his best friend’s father and boss for giving the okay to take a week off with such short notice. More so, he knew what Seth was up to and gave him his full support.

It wasn’t like he didn’t enjoy living in a small town in Iowa. He loved his job, his family, his life. Still, at thirty-one years old and barely ever traveling out of the state, the world felt like a vast place he wanted to explore instead of staying caged there forever.

There was also the little fact that his latest girlfriend caught him cheating on her during Christmas. When she made it public, he became the town’s gossip and still was a few months after.

It wouldn’t be a big fuss since it wasn’t the first time he did it. He already had a reputation so it shouldn’t be so shocking. But it was the first time he’d been caught cheating with a guy.

Seth wasn’t even into guys, not really.

He just enjoyed sex and the attention, especially after _accidentally_ learning long ago that it could also feel really good with guys. _Accidentally_ meaning getting so drunk one day in his early twenties that, by the time he realized what he was doing, another dude was sucking him off and probing his ass. And it wasn’t bad. Not at all.

Anyway, he felt like a change would do him good.

So when his best friend Marek — who left Iowa a year ago to join the WWE tech crew in Connecticut — tipped him off on a position open in the WWE Florida office he said: why not?

While he always believed offices were boring places, nothing like what he saw on tv, he was curious to get into that sort of business.

He knew he’d make more money than working at the gym and, being smart and progressing within the company, would be able to save enough and open his own CrossFit box in a few years. Then he would specialize himself enough to make a good living out of his passion.

 

Seth’s mind was lost in his plans as he waited for the third day of the selection process to begin and WWE’s Talent Acquisition manager, Amy Dumas, to make her appearance and inform the candidates about how they would proceed.

So far, they had gone through two stages of the process.

On the first day, all applicants sat down in a room that seemed to double as both a training room and a conference area to go through a written test. It had been surprisingly thorough. It included three real customer emails to reply with the knowledge he possessed about the company, products, and general customer service skills. There had also been a grammar test and a general wrestling knowledge questionnaire which, as a lifelong wrestling fan, he shamelessly enjoyed filling up.

Later in the day, he received an email from Amy congratulating him for going into the second stage of the recruiting process, a personal interview with her the next morning.

Around thirty minutes long, it had been a pretty straightforward and personal interview. It aimed to get to know him better and try to discern if Seth would be a good fit for the company.

To say it was a shocking experience would be an understatement.

Seth was interrogated about how he felt about teamwork, dealing with customers, what he did in his free time. If he was married or had any plans to marry anytime soon. Amy’s delight when they talked about him being a CrossFit and personal trainer caught him off guard. Apparently, the company had a gym set on each office and employees were encouraged to use it.

Furthermore, he was told straight away that to progress in the company; it was a must to do so. Vince McMahon, the CEO, wouldn’t allow anyone who didn’t have a strict training ethic to go any far into the hierarchy of WWE. The reasoning was the following: if you’re not committed to your own body, how can you be expected to be committed to your job?

It kinda made sense, and he assumed that was why the personal interview was given priority and happened before the professional one.

Seth had never heard of a company doing such a thing before, but he thought it was an incredibly clever approach to business. And it would also mean he would be surrounded by hot people if he got the job, which was always a plus as long as he kept his dick in check and avoided any scandals.

He told himself he’d be able to do that. New start, new life, new Seth. It sounded good in his mind.

Again, he received a new email that afternoon with an appointment for the third stage of the recruitment process. This time it would be a new interview with Amy Dumas — which he had no complaints about, the woman was hot as fuck and probably just as merciless from the strong personality she hinted at — and the customer service team leader and supervisors. The email also mentioned he would have to pass a new test but offered no further information about it.

 

He didn’t get why all the candidates had been appointed at the same time though. The interviews would be individual as far as he knew, so it made no sense that they would have to wait for each applicant to be done.

A glance at his _rivals_ revealed Amy — or Lita, as some people had called her along the corridors — hadn’t lied when she said WWE wanted people who were into training. Everybody looked like they had come straight out of a fitness modeling or bodybuilding catalog. The amount of muscle, self-tanning and silicone were astounding yet pleasant on the eyes.

Seth caught the girl sitting to his right staring at him anxiously and flashed her a reassuring smile.

She was the perfect example of... that. Perfection. So perfect she didn’t look human. Blonde, tan, muscled, gorgeous beyond words. For the first time in his life, he wondered how someone could be so fucking hot that it put him _off_. “Hey,” he flashed her a smile, proud he got her attention regardless of his train of thought. “I’m Seth. Nervous?”

“Yup, is this the first time you try? Haven’t seen you before,” she eyed him curiously. Oh, so that’s what it was about. “Mandy. Fourth time I apply for a job here.”

“Could be worse. Seventh time I try,” a deep voice muttered behind Seth’s head, butting into the conversation. He turned to his left to address the guy, who would pass as some Greek god rather than a human being and seemed to suffer Mandy's perfection disease as well. Too hot to be hot, if that made sense. 

Had Seth been a less confident guy, his ego would have been crushed on the floor on the three days he’d spent attending to this recruitment process. 

“Roman,” the guy introduced himself, shaking Seth’s hand before he did the same with Mandy.

“I’ve seen you before for sure, Roman,” Mandy said with a smile. “I wasn’t going to try anymore, but I heard Jericho got promoted to Quality and decided to give it a try.”

“Sure I did,” Roman huffed. “Last time he said he’d put me on some sort of stupid list, heard the new guy isn’t any better, but I gotta see it to believe it.”

Seth felt like he was watching a tennis match, looking from one to the other but having no clue what they were talking about.

“I wonder if they changed the supervisors too, that weird guy last time was so tough on the test he almost made me cry,” Mandy frowned, her shoulders tense.

Roman snorted. “Who, Miz?” he shook his head. “Heard he’s the new team leader.”

Mandy seemed to brighten at that, but Seth was getting more confused by the minute. “No, it wasn’t Miz. Last time I got an interview, it was this blond guy who looked like he needed a shower. Such a weirdo, no idea how he got a job here,” she said scrunching her nose.

Seth gaped at them. “Guys, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Is it really _that_ difficult to get a job here?”

“Depends,” Roman shrugged. “If they like you enough and do well on the last test, you’re in. But if you fail the last test-”

“But what’s that test? What’s so difficult about it?”

Both looked at Seth like he had a shit-throwing monkey party on his face, and that caught the attention of some of the other applicants. “Man, you really are a newbie to this business,” Roman laughed out loud. “It’s a damn call with whoever is tougher out of them. Last time I froze from the way Jericho yelled at me and got rejected because I didn’t have a good reaction.”

Another guy — a ginger who wasn’t as bulky as the majority of applicants but to his credit got the tan right —, leaned closer to them with a terrified look on his face. “Third time I apply, last time the supervisor was an asshole, I hope they fired his ass,” he whispered. “He laughed at me for being honest. He asked me why I was doing this job and I told him ‘cause I got kids. What was he expecting?”

Seth bit his lip and glanced at Roman, who seemed to be trying to hold back a laugh as well.

Mandy stood up and patted him warmly on the shoulder. “Sounds like that jerk I was talking about. He said: ‘ _y’sound like a dumb blonde who would rather be taking bikini selfies, ya smart enough to understand so many words in a row?_ ’,” she slurred, allegedly mimicking the guy’s speech. “Went downhill from there, wish I could have him face to face I would kick the s-”

 

“Good morning everybody!” Dumas’ voice put an effective end to the gossiping as she stepped into the reception hall. “As you know,” she stopped in front of the small group, a hand on her hips as she held a notebook and her smartphone on the other. “Today is the last day of this recruiting. I want to thank you all for the effort; we got great candidates this time!”

Everybody beamed at this, but the impatience could also be chewed in the air.

“The schedule for today is the final live support test with one of the team’s supervisors. If you pass it, you’ll have a final interview immediately afterward with the team leader and supervisors. I’ll be there too to make things easier for you.” She shifted her weight while assessing the candidates with a sharp gaze. “I’ll call you one by one every time someone leaves. Depending on the outcome it could take a moment or up to an hour. Be ready and good luck.”

Seth watched the so-called Lita as she opened her notebook and ran her eyes over it. “Okay, so let’s begin. Follow me- Morgan, Liv Morgan,” she nodded at a gorgeous short blond who immediately strolled behind her.

Seth wondered for a brief moment what else he might have missed while growing up in Iowa. It was going to be difficult to become a new Seth if he lived surrounded by people looking like the specimens in that room.

No more than ten minutes later, the blond chick dragged her feet into the reception, flashing an insecure look to one of the applicants, a heavily tattooed punk-looking woman.

“How did it go, Liv?” the second applicant asked.

Liv shrugged, shaking her head slowly. “I don’t think so. The test was okay; the guy was cool, we were done quickly. But the final interview- That Miz is an asshole.”

Before anyone else could say a word, Amy Dumas was back in the room. “Thanks, Liv,” she said with a smile. “Next is- Slater, Heath Slater.”

The ginger guy from before stiffened and nervously approached her, stuttering as he greeted her.

Less than five minutes later, Heath was back, his skin way redder than his hair.

“Again. Again the same guy! I got kids for fuck's sake!” he shouted before he stormed out of the building.

Seth cringed, wondering if the test was _that_ bad. What could possibly happen? He got it; it would be a difficult call, testing them in uncomfortable or violent situations. It made sense, and he didn’t get what the fear was about.

The next to go inside was the tattooed chick from earlier — Ruby Riott, apparently —, who seemed to stay inside the longest so far, over the twenty-minute mark. She looked solemn, but her moves were confident as she acknowledged her rivals with a nod and left the building.

Soon after, Mandy was called in. When she returned, nobody dared ask a question. She just shot a furious look to Roman, who seemed to understand and share her defeat. Silence took over the reception hall as more candidates were called and time went on.

By the time it was Seth’s turn, only two guys were still waiting to be interviewed.

He stretched his back discretely as he followed her into a small office. On the desk, a laptop with a pair of expensive looking headphones on top and a notebook with a pen on the side seemed to be waiting for him. 

“Okay Seth,” Lita motioned for Seth to sit on the desk. “I logged you in. There is a customer profile in front of you, open in our back office. See that widget at the top of the page? It will flash red when you receive a call and must click on it when it happens. The second tab on the browser, please click on it.”

Seth obeyed and looked at the page appearing in front of his eyes. Something clenched in his stomach when he realized it was an internal knowledge base with the different packages and channels, that clicking on any of them gave him all the information regarding the contents, the different sections on the network, all the brands… 

He didn’t notice he was marking out until he heard Lita laugh and felt her pat on the shoulder.

“Merry Christmas, buddy,” she teased. “Please, click on the third tab, Seth,” her voice turned authoritative while still gentle. “In this third tab, you can see the promotional packages we offer to our customers. Clicking on each will show you all the information on their contents and-” she made a clicking gesture on the air. “Theeere. See? By going there, you’ll see each promo’s terms and conditions our agents must be familiar with when dealing with customer complaints.”

Seth blinked at her stupidly, feeling his cheeks burn. “Am I gonna have to use this during the test?”

Lita nodded. “The test will be a call, and you will have to use those tools. Go back to the customer's profile,” she instructed. “It’s pretty straightforward. On the top pane, you have a search box to search for customer’s accounts. Each button is self-explanatory as well, and you’ll click on them if needed. Every time you do it, the information will appear below, and you can scroll down and use it during the call. Inside the notebook, you have a printout with the call receiving script and guidelines, read through it as well. Take a few minutes to get familiar with it, ask me any questions. Go ahead.”

Seth was amazed at the amount of information something as simple-sounding as a sports entertainment tv platform stored from their customers. There was even a section in the back office where all customers emails and chats were stored. Phone calls were also saved there with comments from the customer service agents.

He'd never imagined that people would actually contact such a service so often or that the company would keep such a tight eye on it.

He clicked on the button to create a new contact, and a small window popped up, offering a selection of phone calls, chats, or emails. “Exactly, you’ll use that during the test to leave a record about the call,” Lita chuckled behind him. “Questions? Are you ready? They may end the call at any moment and come here to dismiss you if you don’t pass it. If you’re successful, I’ll come back to get you into the meeting room for the final interview, okay? Then put the headphones on and wait for the call to go through.”

Nodding energetically, Seth adjusted the headphones and watched the door close as Lita left the room. He stared at the laptop screen for a while, scrolling up and down the page, making himself familiar with the information. He crafted a quick plan, giving the guidelines on the script sheet laid in front of him the last look. He kept it in sight to use during the test.

 _Never use your real name, some customers may try to find you outside of work and neither you or WWE want that_. _Ask for these details to verify who you're assisting._   _Smiles can be felt through the phone_. _Be chill, speak in a calm and clear way, but fast enough that you won’t concede the customer time to think_. _Be confident: it’s you who has the answers, you do a good job when you educate your customer_.

A loud ring forced him to move his attention back to the laptop and finally get to business. He knew the caller couldn’t hear him yet and felt strangely mesmerized by the sound of a rustle, someone readjusting their position. Steady breathing against a phone followed by a low, almost amused ' _Anyone there? Will nobody pick the call or what-_ '. The interviewer was a guy.

Those headphones were definitely _expensive,_ and the quality of the sound made the voice at the other end of the line crawl into his skin. ' _Five, four, three-_ ' Seth heard the speaker's bored countdown and shook away the shivers his tone sent through his spine.

Seth felt his heart rush as he cleared his throat, shakily hovering the mouse over the ‘ _Mute_ ’ button flashing red at the top of the screen with a clock counting back from ten. He took a deep breath and only then — just before the timer hit the zero mark —, allowed the caller to hear his voice. He probably sounded too rushed, insecure and more high pitched than he'd like, but there was no turning back.

“Hi, thanks for contacting WWE Network. My name is Tyler, how can I help you?”

**Author's Note:**

> I did it! This mammoth was bugging me so much I had to do something about it so I can continue with my other works. Here is the introductory chapter, which will be followed up hopefully soon. My plan is to start updating this regularly after 'Barcodes & Swipes' is finished, but I may add the second part of the intro sooner if it keeps nagging me so much.
> 
> For me, writing this type of AU is fun because I have a deep knowledge of how this kind of business works, and I like adapting it to a different sector, so the tv and entertainment provider stuff may be a bit off at times.
> 
> At this point, you can imagine who the interviewer at the other end of the line is, right? Will Seth pass the test? If he does, how will the final interview go? Who do you think will end up snatching the two available positions? How will it go from there? Was it a clever choice to try to move to Orlando to start a new life?
> 
> Please, let me know what you think in the comments! The only benefit I get out of writing this is my own enjoyment and (hopefully) yours, so please feel free to let me know what you think -comments are open to guests too-! What you liked, what you didn't or hated, what you think will happen or anything you want to share with me. 
> 
> Remember you can also drop me a line on Tumblr (Besaster) if you want to and that I keep posting previews, updates, and little random bits on the process of writing my fics.
> 
> Thanks for reading, see you VERY soon :)


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